Cotton extracting and cleaning machine.



RT. E. MITGHELL COTTON EXTRACTING IAND CLEANING MACHINE. APPLIOATION FILED 11110.23, 1912.

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\\ Hummm i In b JOHN E. MITCHELL, or sT. LOUIS, r/IIssouIeI.l

COTTON' XTRACTING .AND CLEANING MACHINE.

Application filed December 23, 1912. Serial No. 738,156.

. T all whom it may concern Be it known that I, JOI-IN E. MITCHELL, a citizen of the United. States, residing in the city of St. Louis and State of Missouri, have invented new and useful Improvements in Cotton Extracting and Cleaning Machines, of which the following is a specification. sI

rlhis invention relatesto cotton extracting and cleaning machines, and has for its.

object improvements in the machine heretofore patented to me, No. 1,030,913, dated July 2nd, 1912. In the said patented machine the characteristic,feature is the employment of double hull boards which regun late the size of openings past the saw cylinder, the upper board allowing the larger,

andthe lwer board the hner pieces of hull to pass through, while the larger pieces are knocked by the saws through the space between the two hull boards. In a pending application of Dennis Parks, Ser. N o. 710,391, filed July 19th, 1912, is disclosed an improved boll crushing cylinder, the salient feature of .which is the provision of pivoted beaters mounted on a revolving cylinder and traveling within a forammous mclosure.

. This construction of boll crusher is shown in the present application, and is used in the commercial machine, manufactured under my patent aforesaid. rIhe advantages yof this particular form of boll crusher need not be here recited, but it is suiiicient to say that it is deemed essential to thesuccessful operation of the machine. \It has been found, however, in practice jiat with the boll crusher rotating at arate of speed sufficient to crush and disintegrate the average character of .cotton'blls without pulverizing the hulls thereof, a great many bolls of a tough and substantially non-brittle character will not be broken up by the boll Crusher, and hence will not be acted on by .the saws, and will accumulate in the agi- 4tating chamber adjacent to the saws; or else have their cotton extracted, and pass out of the machine, only after relatively long continued action by the saws.- It has further been found that if the speed of the boll palrticles thereof from the cotton very difficu t.

It is` one of the purposes of the present invention, therefore, to produce a machine which will provide for crushing, and separating cotton from, bolls which have not been crushed bythe boll crusher in the initial operation.

To this end the invention consists in this regard in locating a-guard adjacent to one of the rotary members coniining, in part, the agitating chamber, cated in suiiciently close proximity to the member to insure that a boll passing between it and such rotary member will be crushed.

In thus providing for reducing the bolls and larger pieces of hull that have escaped the action of the crusher, I obviate the necessity for the employment of the double hull board principle, for the reason that the the guard being 1o-` Specication of Letters Patent. ]Patnted Feb. 23, 1915.

form size; or at least to such size that the I provision of one opening past .the saw cylinder is found sufficient, as this opening may be made large enough to permit all the pieces of hull to escape, while substantially preventing the escape of cotton. It inevitably follows, however, that with an ordinary stationary hull board some cotton will escape along with the hulls, and a further purpose of the present invention, therefore, is the provision of means for insuring the engagement of the cotton by the teeth of the saws so as to prevent the escape of the cotton. Various means may be employed for this purpose, that shown in the drawing, and hereinafter described, being a very eiiicient one; but in all cases the underlying principle consists in forcibly projecting the material about to vpass by the saws from the lower end of the hull board into engagement with the saws so that the teeth thereof 'will engage the cotton while the hulls will be permitted to fall through.

With the above stated purposes in view the invention consists essentially in a cotton extracting and cleaning machine comprising feeding and crushing mechanism, a rotary saw cylinder, a rotary pod eXpeller coperating therewith, a supplemental crushing roll and coperating'guard, and a vibratory hull board cooperating with the saw cylinder.'

Figure 1 1s .a central cross sectional view` through al machine; of the type described constructed according to my present invention, only sufficient of the driving means being indicated to make the operation clear; and Fig. 2 is a broken plan view showing a portion of the saw cylinder and of the vibratory hull board.

:Referring now to the drawings, 1 indicates the casing of the machine, and 2 a -pair ofifeed rolls mounted on shafts 3, and revolving toward each other, as indicated by the-arrows.' Each of these rolls Vis provided around its circumference with longitudi-` nally-extending channel bars 4 which form grlpping'surfaces to engage the cotton and forceit downinto the machine.

The numeral 5 indicates the combined feeding andboll-crushing cylinder, which is mounted on ashaft y6 and revolves in the direction .indicated by the arrows. tially surrounding thejlower side of thiscylinder is a screenv 7 secured at its end s to cross bars 8, and being preferably provided with'several flat faces, as indicated at 9. The cylinder 5- is provided-` with pivoted beater-arms 10 which coperate with the flatsides ofthe screen 7 to crush and dis# integrate the'bolls.

. The numeral 11 indicates the'saw cylinder, 12 the od-expeller, and 13 the dofferbrush, all o these parts being substantially the same as illustrated in my patent before mentioned, "and not requiring, therefore, further description. In place of the hull boards. shown in said patent, however, I employthe construction now to be4 described. X

The space 14: between the. Saw cylinder and the boll Crusher forms an agitating chamber into which the cotton and v'bolls to be treated'are discharged 4by the action ofthe beater-arms 10. The numeral 15indicates generally a vibratory hull lboard,

' which, in effect, formsthe bottoin of this agitatin'g chamber. 4 Said hullsboard vsconveniently constructed as follows: Extend# ing substantially fromside to side of the machineion the interiorthereof is a bar 16 which has secured to its upper side a spring mtal plate 17 which vis kerfed to provide a series of fingers 18 which extend downwardtoward the saw cylinder, .and at their lower ends are bent downward to form Parshoulders 19 and inclined portions 20, the lower extremities ofwhicl1 define the size of an opening 21 past the saw cylinder. The width of this opening may vary within reasonable limits, but in practice it would not be less than one-half an inch, nor more than an inch. I have found an opening about three-fourths of an inch in width to be desirable. rl`he bar 16 is secured by one or more hinges 22 to the forward cross bar 8, and has secured centrally of its length an arm 23 having its under side flat and resting upon an agitator 21 secured on a shaft 25, said agitator having alternating flat sides 26 and rounded corners 27. The shaft 25 is driven from a pulley 28 by means of a belt 29. As the agitator 2st. revolves it will cause the vibration of the arm 28, as `will be readily understood, and this in turn will cause the vibration of the spring fingers 18. y The opening between the shoulders 19 and the saw cylinder is suliiciently restricted to prevent the entrance into the space between the inclined portion 20 and the saw cylinder of uncrushed bolls, which latter are taken care of in the manner later to be described. The hulls and cotton, however, passing intoy such space will be thrown outward by the vibration of the fingers 18, and into engagement with the saw cylinder which will thus insure the engagement of cotton particles thereby, while pieces of hull-` not being engaged by the saws, will fall through the opening 21 and 'thus be finally separated from the cotton. The vibration of the spring lingers 18 is quite rapid, owing to their being constructed of spring metal, and being entirely free from the bar 18 to their lower ends, but the arc of vibration is not great, nor are the cotton and hull particles projected with any considerable force against the saw cylinder, it being only necessary to insure. that the lcotton particles shall be thrown with such force as to cause them to be engaged by the teeth of thesaws and thus prevent their escape past the saw cylinder.

In order to provide for crushing bolls which have not been reduced by the action ofthe `boll Crusher 5 I employ the following construction: Mounted above and slightly to one side of the pod expeller 12 is a Supplemental crushing roll 30 which may be of the same size and construction as the pod expeller, and is' mounted to rotate with its channel bars in suliciently close Proximity with those of the pod expeller to-prevent the passage of any material between them. Extending from side to side of the machine and mounted in the ends thereof is a circular bar 31 which I term a guard, the said guard being located substantiallyin the same horizontal planeas the axis of the pod expeller 12, and being located suiiciently close to the crushing roll 30 that any pods passing between the guard and said crushing roll will be crushed by the channel bars 32 thereof. The uncrushed bells entering the agitating chamber and falling into the bottom thereof will be stopped by engagement with the shoulders 19 and the teeth of the saws, which latter throw them upward; and while this action may be repeated a number' of times, the bolls will sooner or later pass upward intothe space between the pod expeller 12 and the guard 3l and. through the action of the crushing roll 30 will be forced against said guard and thereby crushed, after which they fall back into the agitating chamber to be again acted on by the saws. The crushing roll 30 and guard 3l not only serve to crush bolls,

but the y likewise will break up larger pieces of hull so that -all of -the hulls are broken up into suliiciently small pieces to permit them to readily pass through the opening 2l.

In practice I find` that a machine constructed according to my present invention will operate to thoroughly and rapidly clean the cotton so that the saine will be discharged through the opening 33 by the doffer brush practically entirely free from hull particles and other refuse matter, and is then in the id cal condition to be ginned. In practice the cleaned cotton is delivered by a suitable conduit, (not shown), drectly to the gin as it passes through the opening 33. The hull particles and'other refuse, of course, fall to the bottom of the casing, whence they are conveyed out of the machine by an endless screw conveyer 34, operated by a pulley 35 from the belt 29. The feed rolls 2, bell-crushing cylinder 5, pod expcller 12, saw cylinder l1, dofferbrush 13, and crushing roll 30 are'rotated in the directions respectively indicated by the arrows adjacent thereto by suitable dri-ving .mechanism which( is of the usual construction, and which, therefore, it is not deemed necessary to more fully illustrate or describe.

l. claim:

l. A cotton extracting and cleaning machine comprising a saw cylinder, a hull board, the lower end of which regulates the size of an uninterrupted opening past the saw cylinder for the escape of hulls, and means for forcibly projecting cotton from the lower end of the hull board directly into contact with the saw cylinder.

2. A cotton extracting and cleaning`machine comprising'a saw cylinder, a hull board directed toward the saw cylinder and haring a lower end-portion inclined. at a less angle to said cylinder, and defining the size of an uninterrupted opening past the saw cylinder for the escape of hulls, and means for forcibly projecting cotton from the lower end of the hull4 board directly into contact with the saw cylinder.

3.a A cotton extracting and cleaning machine comprising a saw cylinder, a hull board directed toward the saw cylinder and having a lower end-portion inclined `at a less angle to said cylinder, the lower termination of the upper part of the hull board lying sufficiently close to the saw cylinder to prevent bolls from passing into the space between the lower end-portion and the saw cylinder, and the lower end of the hull .board lying nearer to and regulating the size of an uninterrupted opening past the saw cylinder, and means for forcibly projecting cotton at the lower end of the hull board into contact with the saw cylinder.

. el. A cotton extracting and cleaning machine comprising crushing and feeding mechanism, a` saw cylinder, a pod expeller coperating therewith, a hull board, the lower end of which regulates the size of an uninterrupted opening past the saw cylinder for the escape of hulls, said hull board,

saw cylinder and pod expeller confining, in

part, an agitating chamber, and a supplemental crushing member in saidagitatingA chamber.

A cotton extracting and cleaning machine comprising crushing and feeding .mechanism, a saw cylinder, a pod expeller 'cooperating therewith, a hull board, the

lower end of which regulates the size of an 'uninterrupted opening-past the saw cylinder, said hull board, saw cylinder and pod expeller confining, in part, an agitating whiclrand said roll the material to be crushed passes, and a hull board, the lower end of which regulates the size of an opening past the saw cylinder.

7. A. cotton extracting and cleaning machine comprising crushing and feeding mechanism, a sawcylinder, a pod expeller cooperating therewith, a hull board, the lower end of which regulates the size of an opening past the saw cylinder, said hull board, saw cylinder and pod expeller conlining, in part, an agitating chamber, a supplemental crushing member in said'agitating chamber, and means for forcibly projecting cotton at the lower Aend of the hull board into contact with the saw cylinder.

8. A cotton extracting and cleaning machine comprising a saw cylindera pod eX- peller, a crushing roll located adjacent to said pd expeller, a guard located adjacent to said crushing roll and between which and Ilb cylinder.

said roll the material rto be crushed passes,l

a hull board, the lower end of which regulates the'size of anopening past the saw cylinder,- and means for forciblyprojecting cotton at thejlower end of the hull board into contact with the saw cylinder.

9. A"cotton extracting and cleaning machine comprising a saw cylinder, a pod expeller, a crushing roll located adjacent to said pod expeller, a stationary guard located adjacent to the crushing roll, and between whichf and said-roll the material to be. crushed passes, a hull`board,the 'lower endof which regulates'the size. of an opening past the saw cylinder, and means for forci` bly projecting cottonat the lower end of the hull-board into `contact with the saw 10. A cotton'extracting and cleaning m'avchine comprising crushing and feeding mechanism, av saw cylinder, a pod expeller coperating therewith, a supplemental crushing roll located adjacent to the pod expeller, a stationary circular bar located adjacent to the supplemental crushing rol] and extending parallel therewith, a hull board, the lower vend of which regulates the Asize of an opening'past the saw cylinder, and means for forcibly projecting cotton at the lower .end of the hull board into contact with the saw cylinder.

11. A cotton extracting and cleaning machine comprsinga saw cylinderand a hull board, the lower end of which is adapted to vibrate toward and from the saw cylinder and regulates the size of an uninterrupted opening past the saw cylinder for the escape of hulls.

12. `A cotton extracting and cleaning machine comprising 'a saw cylinder, a hull board, the lower end of which is`adapted to vibrate toward and from the saw cylinder and regulates Vthe size of an uninterrupted opening past the saw cylinder for the escape oi? hulls, and means for continuously vibrating said hull board.

13. A cotton extracting and cleaning machine comprising a saw cylinder, a hull board having spring fingers, the lower end arm secured to said members, and an agltator adapted to rotate in contact with said arm whereby to Vibrate'said spring fingers.'

In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set m'y hand in presence of two subscribing witnesses.

JOHN E. MITCHELL.l

Witnesses:

BRUCE E. ELLIOTT, STELLA HILL. 

